I Mark The Hours
by J.F. Treml
Summary: Not all Parselmouths are Slytherins. And not all Syltherins are snakes. House Slytherin was just the place that the clever and determined Theodore Nott could thrive... The Sorting Hat had assured him. Living amongst a house of Death-Eaters-to-be holds its own challenges for an individualist like Nott. This year, his Slytherin friends may be his worst enemies.
1. Chapter 1: Sneaky Boots

_Chapter One_  
 **Sneaky Boots**

"Now where is that blasted thing?"

"There's no time to find it now, Minerva." said Professor Dumbledore. His voice was stern without being unkind. Professor McGonagall, hearing the urgency in his voice, quit her search of the office and followed him out the door.

As the door shut, it carried a breeze in from the window, lifting the drapes to expose a pair of worn boots. The office was cool and still for several moments before the boots stirred.

These boots belonged to Theodore Nott, a tall, thin lad of the same year as the famous Mr. Potter. Theo and Harry Potter hardly knew one another and wouldn't look twice if one came into the room where the other was studying, for instance. They knew of one another, though. But their acquaintance carried neither hostility nor friendship.

But this is not the matter here.

Here, we need only to begin with the boots.

Theo wasn't entirely convinced that the boots really were magic. His father gave them to him as a gift two Christmases ago. At the time, they were several sizes too large and although the younger Theo enjoyed stomping around in them that morning, they quickly found a home in the back of his closet, where they sat undisturbed for more than a year.

That is, they remained there until the beginning of this school year - Theo's fourth - when they inexplicably turned up in Theo's school trunk. Neither of his parents admitted to putting them there, but his father did tell him, on the way to the train station in London, that they were not ordinary boots. They had been his own boots from when he was in school at the Durmstrang Institute. He claimed that they were enchanted and called them Loki's loafers - but quickly assured him that in addition to not being loafers, they also had no connection whatsoever to the demigod. What they were, was a leather so soft that they felt like going barefoot. And even though they did have heels and soles, these too we so soft that they padded gently across the floor making no sound at all.

His father had gone on and on about other powers. Invisibility. Silence. Confidence. They imparted everything, if his father was to be believed. But unlike every other magical artifact Theo put his hands on, he chose never to investigate the claims his father made about the boots. It was simpler this way. It assured him that he would not have to contradict his dad, which was either unwise or futile.

Nevertheless, here he was, standing in Loki's Loafers, alone in Professor McGonagall's office and completely without her knowledge. He had slipped in earlier in the evening while the professor was holding office hours for her students. He arranged it with a younger boy from his house,Vlad Rodick, to cause a distraction for him without letting the boyish oaf know just why he needed it done. Despite not being good for much else, Vlad was, at least capable of tumbling a teacup at the right moment and making a mess of helping to recover it. Besides, Vlad was a fun kid and it brightened him to be involved with anything that one of the older boys devised.

Once he was in, Theo moved behind the drapes and only had to be still and quiet until she closed up shop about an hour later leaving him alone and unattended.

Still, he stood, listening, in his magical boots.

The door closed noisily and locked from the outside. He could hear the keychain clank against the door once before the lock engaged. Then he waited some more. A second time he heard a much softer click - then a pause - then another click. It sounded like the lock's tumblers, but he couldn't be sure. It was accompanied by no other sounds, and when he finally dared to peek around the drapes, there was nothing but the empty room.

He knew McGonagall had a time turner hidden somewhere. He had seen Hermione with it last year and then used his father's position at the Ministry to get some information from there as well. McGonagall had requisitioned the device from the Ministry for use by a star student for the duration of last year. He also knew that it had yet to be returned and the Ministry was growing concerned.

What he didn't know was how it worked. Time travel was generally a no-no. There were no spells that could do it (that he knew of) and there were precious few artifacts that had the power. Theo knew this because it was something he was keenly interested in. He had heard of time turners before and several legends of their misuse, but wanted - no, needed, to get his hands on one himself.

He needed to get one to help him with an extracurricular project he was working on without the knowledge of the school. He wished to extend his thoughts on the Novikov Self-Consistency Principle, which asserts that 'if an event exists that would give rise to a paradox, or to any "change" in the past whatsoever, then the probability of that event is zero.' That's what the textbooks said. But that was only because Novikov had said that in the textbooks.

Novikov was a muggle though. And the time paradoxes he speculated about were quantum phenomenon of the sort Albert Einstein had introduced to the muggle world early in the 20th century. However strange the world of quantum physics was, it was not magic. So, Novikov could think all he wanted about paradoxes, but Theo could test it.

Theo was a scientist among wizards and this was his chance to get his hands on something that no one else had ever attempted before. Or, at least, never written about it very convincingly.

But there he was, with the McGonagall's time turner somewhere in this office just waiting for him to get ahold of it. Rather than fumbling around the office as McGonagall had, he brought out his wand and spoke, " _Qua es cos_ , time turner?"

A green light shone from the tip of his wand to a book on the shelf beside him. This was not what he had expected, but he went over and took down the old, graying volume. As he did, the pages fell open to reveal a small wooden compartment nested inside the book.

When he popped the (unmagical) latch, the little lid sprung open. Inside was the time turner, a small amulet consisting of three rings and an inner hourglass. There was no time to study it now though, so he dropped it into his pocket, closed and latched the wooden compartment, and returned the book to the shelf. All he had left to do was to sneak out. Undetected.

He went to the window, but his broom was nowhere to be found.

" _Accio_ , broom." he said while struggling with the window.

Once he managed to get the old thing open, he looked around again, but there was no sign of it.

" _Accio_ , broom" he repeated - more sternly this time - as if the broom had been misbehaving.  
Again, he waited.

But it was no good. Something was holding it up. He imagined it knocking against a closed window or door somewhere making a racket and released the spell.

By the door, he found a second key to the door so he could let himself out, but there was still the matter of McGonagall's office being in the same hall as several other Professor's rooms and having no sure way of knowing what was going on beyond the door. He could hear an occasional voice but not clearly enough to tell him what he might find.

"Boots," he whispered to his feet directly, "if you are magic, now's the time to prove it."

He was just inserting the key into the door when he remembered what he had in his pocket.

It wasn't the way he had planned it, but there was something appropriate about escaping from this situation using the very object he had come to steal.

He only needed to choose the correct place to hide and the correct moment to revisit. He couldn't very well hide in the same place that his past self would be. But there were other places - and one right beside the door, in the cloak cupboard. There was a moment too. It was about a half hour earlier. He had considered trying to sneak out at the time, but all he knew at that time was that McGonagall had left the office - not when she would return. Now he knew that he had at least that half hour.

#  
Back in his room in the Slytherin dungeon, while his roommates slept, Theo inspected the small, golden amulet. It didn't look magic so much as ornamental. But, then again, his boots were hardly even that. It was pretty though. A small glass hourglass was suspended between independent rings of gold set up as gimbals so it could twist in any direction. Although he was tempted to turn it there and then, he checked himself and recalled his plan. He had already used it once in a pinch and felt lucky that it worked without incident.

Quietly, he slipped his stockinged feet into the boots by his bedside and secreted out of the room. He was off to a special room of which no one else seemed to known. In there, he knew he would be safe from prying eyes, and it was there that he had his laboratory workspace.

As far as he knew, no other students currently at Hogwarts knew of this room, and he wanted to keep it that way. Unlike most of the other students in his school, Theo never shared his secrets with the other members of his house in general. About the only thing Slytherin house was good for, in his opinion, was that most of the other students left him alone. None of the other houses trusted anyone from Slytherin - and rightly so. His was a house of good for nothing liars, cheats, and thieves. The last Slytherin to be worth his salt was Snape, and Tom Riddle prior to him. They were both intelligent men with strong independent streaks. Following that, Theo was not among the blind followers of Voldemort, although he was occasionally known to pay it lip service when it was needed. His father had a similarly complicated relationship with Voldemort not wanting to get involved, but also not wanting to miss out on the benefit that his followers group could sometimes provide. He was pretty sure that Snape felt the same way.

The room he was looking for was on the seventh floor. He stalked through the shadows as lightly as he could until he came to a ridiculous tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy. This poor fool was either a moron or made a particularly legacy-killing enemy in a tapestry weaver.

He turned his back to the tapestry, closed his eyes, and concentrated on his need. A place to work. A place to study and plan. A place where he wouldn't be found. When he opened them, a doorway stood where previously there was only blank wall. The halls of the seventh floor were quiet aside from the Barmy fool behind him dancing about clumsily as he hurried inside and shut the door silently behind him.

#  
" _Lumos_ "  
Light shone from a golden source at the tip of his wand illuminating a portion of the large room. Stepping inside, he muttered " _Fugato_ ," and flicked the tip of his wand in the direction of a lantern and pair of candles on his workbench. The golden light jumped from one wick to the next sparking a flame on each until his bench was an island of light in the darkness.

From his pocket he pulled out the long chain holding the time turner. It was a beautiful piece. He had read about it, seen it in several drawings, and twice caught a glimpse of it in Hermione's possession, he had even used it once to escape McGonnagal's office, but this was the first time he really studied it.

He laid the turner and its chain out on his bench top and turned to a cauldron that had been stewing for the past week, slowly fermenting. The cauldron was small - a typical benchtop variety, but he had it resting in a ring stand of the kind that was more commonly found in chemistry labs than a wizard's workshop. Under it, he placed a small tin of Sterno that he had purchased in a muggle shop in London over the Christmas break. Sterno is what is sometimes called 'Canned Heat' - basically a jellied alcohol that burns as a steady flame. He lit it with one of the bench top candles and positioned it under the cauldron for the best heat. Why re-invent the wheel? his grandfather had always said.

While the flame from the Sterno warmed the cauldron, Theo took out a library book called ' _Time Alterations and Other Bad Ideas_ ,' edited by Hannah Nygaard. The book was organized in three sections. The first was _Spells and Enchantments Affecting Space-Time_ by Miles Norgoth, the second was _Causality, Paradoxes and The Principle of Non-Contradiction_ by Jules Whitehead and the last was _How Messing with Time will Get You Killed_ by Jean Paul Sartre (who knew he was a wizard?) .

Honestly, he didn't know where to start. It all sounded fascinating. The real meat of it seemed to be the second section on causality. At least it was what he was most interested in. And it was the section where he intended to explore the most using the time turner.

He opened the book to that section and glanced through the table of contents...  
1\. How do we know that one thing causes another?  
2\. How does time travel undo our notions of causality?  
3\. If not causality - chaos?

and then, Aha! what he was looking for:  
4\. Playing pool with Professor Hawkings and other models of causal connections.

He glanced to his side and saw that the cauldron was starting to ooze a heavy mist that boiled over the edges and floated down from the ring stand and across the table. He pivoted the cauldron away from the canned heat to a position directly over the chain and pendant.

It would take a few minutes for the mist to penetrate the pendant, so he shifted his attention back to the tome. Pool with Hawkings...

The pages were filled with arcane drawings and representative equations describing the logic of what occurred in each experiment. Frankly, the experiments were easier to decipher than the explanations.

Theo had just a few questions that he was hoping to address. The most basic was the classic paradox of using time travel to go back and prevent a thing from happening in a way that would prevent the initial time traveling event to happen in the first place. More simply, 'If I go back in time and kill my father in his own childhood, then I will never be born. If I am not born, how will I go back in time and kill my father?'  
Physicists like to use pool balls in their examples. Almost every example in the chapter was translated into an interaction of pool balls knocking against one another on a table infested with singularities, worm holes, and quantum machines. Interestingly, most of these models were little more than straight physics. Magic hardly entered into many of the problems at all. They were all theoretical. Even wizards rarely traveled in time because of the dangers it presented - look at Professor Hawkings for one - he taught three years at Hogwarts studying real paradoxes before staying too long in the past with the time turner and contracting what muggles called ALS, but wizards knew as 'Paradoxical Paralysis.' The poor man had to retire to Cambridge to live amongst the muggles and spend the rest of his life just thinking about experiments that Theo was now in a position to really perform.

So...what first?

#  
He couldn't help himself, he decided to just go back ten minutes. He would know it worked because that was when he set the Sterno beneath the cauldron. The mist was starting to envelop the artifact now, but wouldn't be then.

In McGonagall's office, he had turned back time quickly and anxiously, needing to effect an escape. In truth, the only thing he really remembered was that it had worked. He had watched McGonagall leave the office a second time, and had even spied his own boots under the drapes by the window - they certainly hadn't made him invisible. The he snuck out quickly and quietly before his other self ever stirred from his hiding place.

Thinking back now, he remembered the second set of clicks from the office door and realized that it was himself.

So, you could detect yourself. He had seen his own boots as a time traveler, and he had heard himself unlock the door while in his 'true time.'  
It had happened all at once. He was there, in the same room, as two people, separated in time - or perhaps, one person, together with himself in time.

Playing with it now would slow down his first investigation into the nature and extent of the thing's magic, but he just couldn't wait. He picked up the pendant and looked at it carefully. It had words inscribed on the rings. 'I mark the hours ...'

If he did it again, here, alone, would he appear beside himself - with that thought he moved over a step before starting.

Impatiently, he held the piece in his hand and turned the hourglass about while watching the world around him for hints (how could he forget to bring a clock?! - _Oh, there's one_.)

Nothing was happening.

He turned it again. Still nothing.

He was vexed.

After sitting and staring at the thing for several minutes in complete silence he replaced it on the bench beneath the cauldron and turned to the first section of the book.

There were lists and lists of artifacts that could supposedly affect space-time - many had notes beside them saying that they did not, in fact, do any magic of the kind. Eventually, he found the time turner and opened to those pages.

But, alas. They were missing!

Three whole pages were torn away leaving nothing about the time turner. He sat several minutes trying to remember - hadn't he looked up the time turner in this very book while in the library before he had checked it out?

#  
He glanced again at his cauldron and saw that the mist had enveloped the time turner and that the whole thing was glowing in different colors. Even the chain was glowing green - that was unexpected. He never suspected that the chain itself was magical.

His notebook contained the list of colors and their meanings. It was his spell, but sometimes even he forgot exactly how it worked. Which is why every scientist keeps a notebook.

Green...green...green. Ah, here, '#3: Green signifies the boundaries within which the spell will work' It had never occurred to him that this was important. When going back in time, what goes? The person holding the pendant? Anyone touching that person (in the same manner that portkeys worked)?

Thinking back, he had wrapped the chain around his wrist to keep it from hanging during his first use yesterday. But he had simply held it the second time, here in his workroom. The chain had been dangling onto his workbench.

He recorded his observations in the notebook. This was especially important now that the pages were missing from Nygaard's text. He was reminded of why he should be a bit more patient about using a magical artifact until he knew how it operated.

When he was done making his notes, he started mapping out a handful of simple experiments. And when he decided that he was going to need a pool table in order to do some of these in just the way that they were proposed ...

\- wahddayaknow? He thought. A pool table! - Right next to him, waiting to be used.


	2. Chapter 2: Lost and Found

Chapter Two  
Lost and Found

Professors McGonagall and Dumbledore arrived at the great hall together. The head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Amelia Bones, and Cecil Boonswraith from the Improper use of Magic Office were waiting impatiently, each trying to distance themselves subtly away from the Hogwarts Caretaker, Argus Filch, who had shown them in and now stood by radiated foul odors from his mouth, hair, and clothes.

"Professors." Ms. Bones said, greeting them as they came in.

"Ms. Bones... Mr. Boonswraith." replied Dumbledore, who nodded and took the hand of each. Then, he turned to the caretaker and said, "Thank you very much Mr. Filch."

Filch grunted and stalked away. Mrs. Norris dropped to the floor from a chair under the table and left with him.

"As you know, we've come to reclaim possession of the time turner loaned out to one of your students. We agreed to the loan, but it's quite overdue now and it is not the kind of artifact that we like leaving about unaccounted for."

"I agree entirely, Ms. Bones," said Dumbledore. "However, we do hope that you will join us this evening for dinner. I'm sure Professor McGonagall would retrieve it for you presently, but I'm afraid she is off to teach a class just now and only stopped by to assure you of its safety."

"Yes. That's right,"said McGonagall. "I have it locked in my office right now. I do trust I'll see you this evening when I'll be sure to return it to your person. I am looking forward to getting it out of my hands, actually. I know it's not dark magic, but it's dangerous nonetheless. I never would have considered loaning it to any student other than Ms. Granger. - She really is a model the others can aspire to. I must be running now. I will see you at dinner…?"

Mr. Boonswraith tried weakly to hide away his disapproval. "I suppose it must be."

Professor McGonagall turned and strode out of the room with a look of relief appearing on her face as soon as she was out of the hall.

Boonswraith turned back to Dumbledore, and in a quite, more congenial tone said, " I don't mean to make a mountain of a molehill here, Albus. But it is my job to keep these kinds of artifacts under close supervision."

"Certainly, Cecil. And there's nowhere we would rather have you supervising that artifact than back in the Ministry. As we said, you'll have it at dinner. Until then, you both know your way around, please enjoy a short stay. I'm afraid that I have some Headmaster's duties I must attend to. Shall I call Filch to escort you …"

"Certainly not!" erupted Bones in an unguarded moment. "That is ... We'll be fine on our own, Albus."

"As you wish." Dumbledore was out the door before Amelia Bones had entirely recovered her cool.

"He's hiding something, I'm afraid," she said. "He's often elusive. But this is something different."

"It's as plain as day," Boonswraith agreed. "What I don't understand, is why? I've had nothing but a solid relationship with him in the past."

"You do know that they have it though don't you?" Bones's tone had a hint of concern.

"Let's hope so. I don't know how we could have been so foolish as to loan out the Nimbus Turner. Any other ... Oh well."

#  
Theo worked several hours examining the time turner's construction and enchantment. After examining the chain for some time, he removed it and studied the nested set of rings by themselves. It was clear that each piece of the pendant had an enchantment all it own. Soon he had it completely disassembled on his table. He left the hourglass in its frame, but with a little close inspection, he had found that it was no great task to pop the gimbals apart.

As the pieces were covered by the mist from his cauldron, it was clear that the outer ring glowed a bright blue. The inner a soft gold, and the hourglass itself produced a gray aura around itself that melded with a dim, white hue from the hourglass's frame.

He took down each description and its interpretation into his notebook:

Outer Ring Blue ...magnitude / setting / distance  
Inner Ring Gold ...also magnitude /distance  
Hourglass Gray Time - an hour reversal charm (at least this much is clear!)  
Frame White ...a synergizing force

As he was reassembling the turner, he noticed a second inscription engraved into the inner ring. He hadn't noticed it before, but the mist apparently revealed more than just magic.

Hours in time, strides in place, nimbus clouds do you replace. My use is limited to not just time, but space too falls within my paradigm.

The outer verse he knew. It was written in the texts he had been reading, but this was something unexpected.

Eventually, he reassembled and pocketed the charm, snuffed his candles, and approached the door to the seventh floor hallway. Beside the door was a nail for his lantern, and beside that was a canvass showing a clearing in the woods. In the distance was Barnabas the Barmy and his fool trolls. Just beyond the fire that they danced about, a large square tapestry hung from the branches of the trees. On that tapestry within the painting was a boorish scene of a hallway, which would have been odd if he did not already know that it was simply a window back into his own world.

Theo waited a moment until one of the trolls took notice of him and plodded gracelessly over to meet him. A rather repulsive beast, it wore rags suggesting a truly limited idea of clothing over its sickly green skin. Drool hung in a thick thread from the corner of its mouth as if it had half swallowed a tennis shoe but had yet to slurp up the last lace. When the great beast got to the painting's foreground, it stooped over and peered out at Theo trying to catch a whiff of his human flesh through flared nostrils.

Theo stood stock still and waited. Other Slytherins had been known to speak with trolls, but it was seldom useful. In the best of conditions they might say something particularly insightful like, 'you smell bad,' and then they wouldn't eat you. In the worst - well...not everyone smelled bad.

Once the troll sniffed a while, it seemed content to let things be and turned to stumble back to its party. As it did so, a crow that had been clinging to its back dropped off and fluttered over to the portrait-window.

"Anyone out there?" Theo asked in a half whisper.

"Nothing but the wind," the crow squawked back.

"All night?"

"All night."

"Give a call if anything changes, will you?" said Theo. "And, thanks, Martin." He brought out half a roll from dinner and pitched it into the painting. Martin caught it handily (beakily) and flew back to set once more amongst the tangled knots of hair and branches that was his nest on the troll's back.

With a last look into the painting to listen for Martin, Theo eased open the chamber door and slipped back into the shadowy halls of Hogwarts's seventh floor.

#  
When he got back to the Slytherin dungeon, Malfoy was holding his court with his droogs Crabbe and Goyle by the fire. Theo wished he could just walk past and go up to his room, but there was little chance that wormy Malfoy would hold his tongue. Upon seeing him enter, Malfoy, true to form, sneered and said, "What have you been doing creeping around after hours, Nott?"

Goyle grunted something like agreement.

"None of your business, Snow White."

"I told you to quit calling me that!" Malfoy blurted out before he could control himself.

Crabbe started to snicker, but restrained himself.

"Sorry, Draco. I must have forgotten. I'll just be going - "

"Not so fast, Nott."

Crabbe snickered a bit again.

"Answer the question. Where have you been?"

"Just grabbing a late snack. I don't have to answer to you Malfoy. I'm not one of your dogs.

This time, neither Crabbe nor Goyle snickered. Instead, Crabbe got to his feet, cracked his knuckles and looked to Malfoy for instructions.

"Crabbe, why don't you take Nott here for a walk and teach him what's what?"

"My pleasure, Draco." Crabbe moved quicker than Theo thought possible and was upon him before he could think to escape.

He must be eager to prove something.

"What do you say you come along with me for a bit of a chit chat." Crabbe's heavy had seized Theo's shoulder and forcefully turned him toward the exit of the dungeon.

Theo was maddeningly frustrated by the assault. Freedom to pursue what he liked without the meddling of outsiders was precisely the reason he had joined Slytherin in the first place. The Sorting Hat had wanted to place him in Ravenclaw, but he protested adamantly that despite the house's value of intellect, the house was too close knit for Nott. It would undoubtably prove incompatible with his studies. It wasn't that he couldn't make friends - he simply wasn't eager to do so when he first arrived in Hogwarts. Unlike so many of the other students, he thought that friends were nothing more than a distraction that he knew he would succumb to in the same way that nit-wit muggles turned off their minds in favor of a television. His only defense was avoidance, and that was much easier in Slytherin where few other students interested him at all.

Unfortunately, he seemed to interest them.

"Are you going to tell me where you were now?" asked Crabbe.

Theo could see that Crabbe was trying to appear more intellectually involved in all this than he likely was because he added before the question even stopped echoing in the hallway, "Don't bother explaining yourself to me, toothpick. I don't care."

Well, perhaps interest was too strong a word to describe how this particular Slytherin felt about him.

Crabbe guided him through the passages to the main stairway up to the first level. For a moment, Theo felt relief at the idea of going to a more populous area of the school, but the feeling didn't last long. The stairway spilled into a comparatively small hall similar to the one upstairs. Only Crabbe didn't guide him toward the stairs so much as beneath them.

Around the ornamental spiral of the railing's end, behind the statue of a relatively young Salazar Slytherin dressed in professorial garb there was a space beneath the stairs filled with cobwebs and spiders. Argus Filch had a bucket and mop tucked away back here, where no one would see it. Otherwise, Theo felt, probably no one else living had ever even seen this dark corner of the school.

Crabbe's strong hand gave Theo a shove and he nearly lost his footing as he simultaneously fell against the wall and tripped over the bucket.

Theo had suffered at the hands of Crabbe and Goyle before. When they were younger they would team up against him and take turns, one holding him while the other pounded him in the stomach. Now that they had grown older, both Crabbe and Goyle had grown so much larger than the other boys their age, that double teaming seemed beneath even their limited values.

Crabbe was on him holding him against the wall with his fingertips while he glowered down on him. "Draco Malfoy was talking to you back there. You need to listen up and show a little respect."

Theo struggled to think of the best way to handle this. The problem was, he had tried so many different tactics in the past and none of them ever led to a lighter punishment.

Try to explain himself: beating.  
Keep silent: beating.  
Try to fight back: double beating.  
Talk back: double beating.  
Try to undermine Mallfoy's influence: double beating.

Theo had been researching some spells to use to protect himself, but knowing that you'll be living together with these goons made even beating them at their own game seem like a bad idea. One had to sleep, you know.

He decided to try silence.

"I'm talking to you punk!" This was a ploy to get him to talk back. He had learned not to fall for this one and looked at Crabbe's big fist.

"I'll teach you, all right." Crabbe gave him a blow to the belly that doubled him over in pain. Even goons like Crabbe knew it was best to avoid hitting people in the face. Visible bruises inevitably led to questions, and questions led to detentions.

Theo's legs went limp, but Crabbe didn't let him fall. "You ain't getting outta this that easy, twerp."

Theo felt his body be propped up by one hand while Crabbe delivered a couple new blows to the gut with the other. Then Crabbe lifted his hand and let Nott crumple to the floor. As he did, the time turner tumbled out of his robe pocket to lie beside him. Uh oh.

"What's this?" Crabbe almost sounded curious. Something Nott couldn't often remember hearing from him before. OK, never, actually.

Theo's eye locked on the pendant just as Crabbe snatched it up from the floor.

"Crap!"

"What?!" said the big thug, hearing his name instead of the curse.

"Give it to me." Theo tried his best to level his voice, not to whine, or to sound at all weak. It wasn't exactly the Jedi mind trick - or even real magic. Instead, he was relying on the only hope he had: steady assurance and the fact that people were sheep and often did exactly what you told them to do if you said it in the right way.

Amazingly, Crabbe stood upright and opened his hand, extending it towards Theo. His eyes were steady on the pendant and his jaw slack.

"Wha... What it is?" He mumbled and raised his eyes slowly to meet Theo's.

This was new ground. Theo's mind raced to collect the right words. A wrong statement now and it would all fall apart. Just as he started to speak, Goyle came crashing around the corner, huffing and puffing. "Crabbe! Come on. -Wait!? - You're not finished with this twerp yet?! We gotta run. Now!"

The spell was broken - if it was a spell - and Crabbe blinked and closed his fist over the amulet again. The stupor in his eyes faded away as he shook his head clear.

Before either Crabbe or Theo could do or say anything, Goyle gave Theo another good thump in the gut, doubling him over as he collapsed to the floor, and grabbed Crabbe by the cloak. "Now."

The two of them ran back down the corridor leaving Theo alone under the stairs.

By the time Nott dragged himself back to the Slytherin dungeon, there was no sign of Malfoy or either of his mates. No one was in the main room at all at this hour and the fire was reduced to a few glowing embers and smoking ash.  
In the room that Theo shared with two other classmates, the curtains were drawn around their beds and all was silent. Theo didn't bother removing his robe or shoes - and certainly didn't fuss with his own bed curtains, but instead fell over asleep on his mattress. The last thing he remembered thinking was that he had to get to Crabbe tomorrow - fast, before he said anything to Malfoy. That one was a dullard too, but not nearly as much as his oversized henchmen. He would know something of value when he saw it.

#  
Everything hurt. His stomach hurt, his bones ached, his pride had taken a damaging blow, and even his bowels complained. His head ached from the pain in his gut and he was exhausted despite sleeping like the dead. Rolling over in bed made his head swim so badly that he wanted to throw up.

He closed his eyes and thought about begging out of classes today.

But then he remembered Crabbe and the time turner. He leapt from bed - then stopped abruptly. The nausea hit hard. For a long minute he stood ... waiting. When it faded to something he could live with, he started again. Most of the Slytherin were already upstairs having breakfast in the dining hall at this hour. But it wasn't too late yet. In his closet hung his extra cloaks with his school uniforms. He felt for the inside pocket of his dress cloak. Then brought out a small leather case with a zipper running around the outside. Opening it, he looked through half a dozen small vials he prepared for himself over the summer. He took one and then replaced the case in its hiding spot.

All he needed was a moment to collect himself, limber up his fingers, steel his nerves, and ... fix himself.

Outside of the dungeon, he hoofed it directly to the same stairway where he had received his beating last night. and crouched by the bucket and mop. In his hand, he held the vial with it's deep red liquid. Snape was an excellent teacher - and despite his perennial wish to teach defense against the dark arts, he was a natural alchemist. Last spring Theo had volunteered to work for Snape in his laboratory. He cleaned the room and washed glassware like any volunteer in a chemistry lab would do in a muggle university. After several weeks, Snape entrusted the boy to make some simple potions for the classroom. One he saw the boy's willingness to work hard and ability to learn from his mistakes, Snape spent more time with the boy teaching him the principles of alchemy, rather than just the mundane recipes that the others had been learning in class.

From that tutelage, Theo had gone on experimenting with known recipes as well as formulating some simple ones of his own. One of those simple ones was in his hand right now: A potion of minor healing (Minor being a matter of opinion). He popped the cork and swigged down the red liquid. A feeling of strength and general well being swept over him. His headache vanished, his guts no longer throbbed and the nausea was gone. It was good.

But that was only the start. He had to be more than healthy. He was healthy last night, but that hadn't stopped Crabbe from dragging him around and pounding him into a wet pulp.

He pulled his wand from his sleeve and flexed it at its tip. He had a love - hate relationship with this wand. It was awesome, White oak, 9 1/2 " long, thin, and strong. Olivander had said that its core was the heartstring of a griffon and that its selection of him clearly augured a future in Griffondore House. He loved it for the power it gave him and the strong feeling of connection he felt towards it. He also loved it for its beauty. But that beauty was hard to miss and no one ever seemed to. So, however much he loved his wand, he also hated the way that it dragged him into the attention of others to whom he wished to be invisible.

At this minute though, he loved his wand whole-heartedly. It radiated a pleasant warmth and vibrated slightly in his hand, ready to perform.

Just then, Crabbe came dragging himself down the passageway unwashed, unkempt, and barely awake.

Theo waited until he heard the footsteps plodding up the stone stairs before he stepped out of the shadows. His wand danced like that of a conductor counting time. But rather than being accompanied by music, Theo chanted the words, "Tenentur eris caecus et frustrari."

Iron bracers snapped into existence about Crabbe's wrists and ankles. Like lightening, chains sprung from the wall and attached to the bracers pulling the confused boy off balance on the stairs before yanking him forcefully off his feet and to the wall behind him. It was somewhat awkward in its execution, but Theo couldn't argue with the effect. One second Crabbe was stumbling bleary-eyed to breakfast, the next he was shackled hands and feet, ten feet off the ground, to the wall of the stairwell. In the process a black sack had appeared covering his head. It seemed unnecessarily redundant, but the third part of the spell befuddled and frustrated its victim to the point where he his brain had no connection to his mouth. That part wouldn't last long though, so Theo wasn't finished. With a whip of his wand, the chains rattled along the walls dragging Crabbe down below the stairs.

Theo followed him there and pulled a glass figurine from his sleeve. It was a cat in a position that looked like it was in the act of clinging to a tree trunk. Theo approached Crabbe's body and pulled up the hood to expose his mouth. Then he held cat beneath Crabbe's big mouth. As it neared, the glass cat sprung from Theo's hand and twisted its body so that its rear paws and claws grabbed the fat boy's jowls, sinking their pins into his skin while the front paws reached around his chin and into his mouth. Their pins dug into Crabbe's soft, pink tongue. All together, the cat suspended itself upside down beneath his chin and held his tongue fast.

Theo smiled in admiration of his own cleverness.

Without a word, he rummaged through his victim's pockets taking a few gold coins, a few wizard trading cards (Humphrey Belcher, Dolores Umbridge (signed), and Sybill Trelawney - with a red heart drawn around her image ? Curiouser and Curiouser.), and finally, his time turner.

Crabbe clearly wanted to say something, but the lingering befuddlement and cat pinning his tongue prevented anything more than an agonal gasp from escaping his open mouth.

"Oh, I'm sorry, chump," said Theo stepping in closer, "I almost forgot." He reached around behind Crabbe with each hand and got a firm hold on his pants and underwear through the cloak. With a heave, he pulled up as hard as he could. And, smiling said, "There you go."

One good thing about being a Slytherin, was that, as cruel a torment as he could muster, it was entirely expected of him. And when inflicted upon another Slytherin, no one was going to complain - at least not to the administration. Any pangs of conscience he might have felt were long ago eclipsed by a stronger sense of justice that came from mischief targeted against any one of Mallfoy's clique.

With that, Theo skipped upstairs with his smile still on his face to catch a quick breakfast before class.

It was quite a while before anyone saw Crabbe again.

#  
In the dining room, Theo found his place at the foot of the Slytherin table farthest from the professors. He wasn't hiding, but found that it was easier to mingle with students of other houses this far back in the room. No one cared much about seating down here unless it was the day of a Quidditch match or the announcement of the house cup.

Here he sat with Miyuki Tsuji and Luna Lovegood of house Ravenclaw and his fellow Slytherin, Daphne Greengrass. They were a group held together by a number of shared interests, such as learning more than what they called the 'surface magic' that was taught in their classes.

"I have something," he said over his coffee.

"Something... interesting? Or something contagious?" asked Luna.

Daphne chortled at the remark and felt orange juice climb into her nose. "Ughh!"

"Yes, something interesting," said Theo. "Something you should come up to 'the room' to see ... Tonight."

Down the table, Malfoy was glaring at him while berating Goyle. They were too far away to hear anything specific, but the ire was clear in Draco's eyes.

They knew he hated it when Ravenclaws sat at their table, but this was clearly something more.

"What have you done to make Draco so angry?" asked Miyuki. Her mother and older brother were deaf and everyone in the family was fluent in both signing and lip-reading and she was watching Draco closely now.

"What's he saying?" Theo asked.

"Something about Crabbe. He hasn't seen him since last night." She stopped to look at Theo. "He says Crabbe took you for a walk and never came back." Theo didn't respond so she went on, "But Goyle says he was still in bed when he left this morning. You didn't do anything to him, did you?"

"I certainly did. That oaf let me have it good last night. I just gave him this morning a bit of what he was doling out last night. Besides ... that 'something' I was telling you about - I had to get it back from him."

"Well here comes your chance to explain it all to Malfoy," said Luna.

"It's OK, he's a very forgiving sort," whispered Miyuki out of the side of her mouth making Theo smirk goofily.

"Nott!" said Draco, standing directly behind Theo. "What are you so pleased about? I want to talk to you."

Theo turned to face him. "Then talk, Snowy."

Mallfoy's face erupted in color and he sputtered so abruptly that he nearly fell over. Goyle was there to steady him though. "I ... I told you..." But the words came out in little more than a whisper, and Draco's brain had clearly run off the rails and into a ditch.

"Where's Crabbe?!"

"I don't know. Isn't it your turn to watch him, Draco?" Theo knew he was pushing Malfoy hard, but he just couldn't hold back. This arrogant little twit acted like he owned anywhere he was standing. Ironically, it was the same reason Malfoy hated Harry Potter, but never realized that he was at least as bad as the Potter kid. At least Potter had actually done something to earn his fame.

"Listen, Nott, if you know where he is, I suggest you tell us, or Goyle here will have to take you for a little walk." Evidently, he became aware that this was exactly the way Crabbe got himself into trouble, so he finished his sentence with far less enthusiasm than he started it with.

"I think he was hanging around by the dungeon, Draco. Why don't you start looking there. I'm sure he'll show up." Then, giving in to his temptation to taunt, "He's wearing his license and tags isn't he? You know they put down dogs without tags."

Draco couldn't handle it. His face was as red as a fireplug and he was visibly sweating. Goyle, on the other hand was just standing behind him dumbly. Any conversation that went beyond simple subject and verb pairs left him scratching his head, so he often just didn't pay attention.

"Come on, Goyle. We'll deal with Theo and his little girlfriends later. Let's go find Crabbe."

Luna turned to Theo blushing. "I didn't know I was your girlfriend, Theo," she said sincerely. "But that makes me happy." She picked up her books and gave him a kiss on the cheek. Theo went rosy and speechless as he watched her skip off to class with her head held high.

"See you later, loverboy," said Miyuki and Daphne. They, too, picked up their books and kissed him - each to a cheek.

"Wow," said Ron Weasley as he walked by, leaving the hall. Even Harry Potter gave him a pat on the back as he filed out as Hermione slapped him playfully, "Boys!"


	3. Chapter 3: Shadow

Chapter Three  
Shadow

At the same time that Theo was having breakfast with Luna, Miyuki, and Daphne, Dumbledore sat with Professors McGonagall and Snape ostensibly to discuss the upcoming Triwizard tournament but actually sharing their knowledge about the missing time turner. Amelia Bones and Cecil Boonswraith were nearby, but busily engaged in discussion with MadEye Moody, this year's defense against the dark arts professor.

"I assure you both that there is nothing to worry about. "

"You have it then?" asked Snape in a low voice.

"Well. I didn't say that either, Severus. It will be where it needs to be when it needs to be there."

"Albus, really." Professor McGonagall interjected. "This is not a game you're playing with students. The ministry does not like to be toyed with."

Professor Dumbledore breathed a deep breath and raised his open hand as if to take an oath.

"Severus," he said in a calm, level tone. "Minerva." He took hold of his wide, open shirtsleeve with his left hand while his right poured red wine into his friend's glasses. "Everything is a game."  
He set the wine bottle back upon the table and released his sleeve. "Look at them. Bones ... Boonswraith. They are so serious. They think they have caught us with our hands in the cookie jar. But as sure as they are, they do nothing without incontrovertible evidence." He paused, to blot away some butter that had stuck to his shirtsleeve despite his efforts at protecting it. "Even if they had that, they would still feign and parry."

"Albus. Have you lost your mind?" Minerva McGonagall was trying earnestly to break his attention from the two ministry representatives sitting at the other end of the table. "This has nothing to do with - well, him." She was referring to Lord Voldemort - still uncomfortable with stating his name aloud. "This is simply a regulatory affair to them. Don't mix this up with their reluctance to admit - his - returning. You're about to make a mountain of a mole hill! And for completely no reason!"

Dumbledore's eyes flicked away from the ministers and met McGonagall's. His gaze was serious and piercing, then softened. "Oh Minerva, my dear, relax yourself. Everything is in hand." He picked up her hand and patted it with his own.

"Headmaster," said Professor Snape. They were all three speaking in the same slow manner to emphasize their point and impart gravitas. "I whole-heartedly agree with Professor McGonagall. You appear to be playing games where there is no game to be played. If you would just - "

But Dumbledore had grown irritated with their concern for his business. "Let's put an end to this, then, shall we?" He rose us and spoke clearly to the ministers. "Mr. Boonswraith. Ms. Bones... I promised you that we would have what you came for by dinner. You will find...," and here he seemed to project to the student body much more than seemed necessary, "... that the object you have come for is within your traveling cloaks in my office." He smiled openly at the two ministers and then out at the remaining students in the hall, lingering his gaze perceptively on several students.

"I question his sanity at times such as these," whispered Snape in an aside to McGonagall. Then, without waiting for a response, he wrapped himself in his black robes and strode from the hall.

#  
Snape left the great hall in the direction of his dungeon classroom not far from the Slytherin House. He was sorely lacking in the information that served as his life's blood in Hogwarts - but he had ways of filling the void. When he entered his classroom he bolted the door. It was another hour and fifteen minutes before his next potions class and even weasles like the Granger girl didn't come to class that early.

From the classroom, he entered and bolted his office door and then, through that he entered and bolted the door to his quarters that were the two small rooms above his office and classroom.

With a wave, all the candles in the room went dark save the one at his writing desk. There he sat and turned his chair away from the desk to gaze into the fireplace that opened to both his private bath and sleeping quarters. In the ashes he traced a circle into which he marked a small dot in the center. He quickly grabbed a pen knife from his desk and rolled up this sleeve. Above the symbol of the death eaters a number of crisscrossed scars marked his arm. To the numerous lines, he added another with a flick of the knife and then held his arm out over the ash symbol.

Several drops of blood dripped into the impression in the center of his circle puffing up the ash in a cloud that swirled within the circle.

"Come. Now!" Snape barked in a sharp, demanding tone familiar to his students.

The ashes continued to swirl and rise in a way that separated their motion from what one might expect in more mundane world. Ash and shadow mixed as the whirl rose from the ground and took shape. Although the dust and shades never stopped moving, they did settle into a form, long and lithe, with the shape of arms, short wings and head, but its torso faded into nothing without any hint of legs.

"Yess, massster," The shadow spoke in words shaped from the sound of the ash whistling through the air. It's head held eyes and a mouth that were little more that shadows within shadows, but they were expressive enough to communicate the being's subservient demeanor.

"I need you in Minerva McGonagall's office. Seek out the time turner." With his left hand, Snape held up his fingers in a pursued, upward gesture. Above them appeared an image of a time turner, its gimbals spinning slowly about.

"I see." The shade hissed softly.

"You may not find it there. Pursue it where you must and bring me information I can use."

Again, it answered, "Yessss, ssssir," and rose to the ceiling to slide between cracks, leaving little more than a coating of ash, like a scorch mark where it passed.

Minerva McGonagall paced her office opening drawers and rummaging through their contents - even reaching through behind the drawers to feel for anything (well, one thing) that might have fallen back there.

"For goodness sakes!" she swore - this was about the extent of swearing she was comfortable with. And, after even more pacing, she spoke a word and shrank into her animangus form of a cat. Even then, she continued to pace for some time, peering under the same dressers and cabinets she had rummaged through in her human form. Still finding nothing, she leapt onto her desk and then atop a nearby shelf where a hair-coated pillow lay out of reach from human hands. She strode onto the pillow, kneaded and pulled at it with her claws until it was properly fluffed, and then dropped into a curl of fur.

When the shade slipped in, slowly and discretely in a dark corner, it did so without a sound. The trip through the stones had filtered away the ash and left it nothing more corporeal than its shadow core.

Snape's shadowy spy floated through the room, passing in and about the desk, drawers, and bookshelves of Professor McGonagall's office. While crossing the bookshelves, it passed its hand through the books absently - until it felt a space that shouldn't be there.

With its hand reaching into the books, a soft purring sound froze it. Its attention shifted upwards to the form of the cat sprawled on its pillow just above.

It was a simple thing to stay silent for a being without a body, but being heard was the last of its concerns. Detection was not always limited to the natural senses of wizards. Leaving its hand in the hidden space amongst the books, the shade pivoted its entire body into the shelving, folding its shape between and behind the books there until it was safely ensconced in the shadows.

When it was one with the shadows of the room it probed the space further with its ethereal fingers. It was the hiding spot for the device, but the device itself was no longer present. Its hand moved to the book's cover, where it felt the recognizable fingerprints of Professor McGonagall on the binding. It knew her prints well. - But there were more. It didn't know to whom they belonged, but it would remember the prints' curves and whirls. It was a simple thing to solve - and it would have its answer soon enough.

The cat shifted and purred again, probably stretching out and flexing her claws absently. But the shade had what it needed now and dropped down through the shelves and floor below without making itself visible again in the office.

#  
Moving amongst the elves was dangerous. Their magic was strong - even compared to the shades. But their minds were weak and distractible, and it had moved amongst them before.

The kitchen contained the dishes of every witch and wizard who took their meals at Hogwarts. The trick was to move through them quickly and secretly before they were magicked clean by the servants. It - the shade - needed to place its 'hands' on each piece of dishwater to feel out any prints. What was an impossible task for others was nothing to the shade. Prints stood out clearly to it as mountains and valleys of dirt, grime and oil. Each had a feel and a smell that was entirely distinct, like flavors of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans - only, in this case, thought the shade, all the flavors were terrible.

In the corner of the kitchen, it sank through the floor and moved amongst the cracks and mortar until it was under one of the tables that had lowered down from the great hall above. Beneath the table, where the shadows were dark, it blended completely with its surroundings and only the tips of its long fingers danced along the undersides of the knives and forks and drinking glasses.

Crimples had a long and distinguished history of working at Hogwarts School of Wizardry. She had started so long ago that she could not remember a time that she was not here. Initially, she worked beside her mother, Dribsey, polishing silver, but she worked so long and hard that she now had the highly coveted and distinguished job of scraping the leavings from the plates. This job was much more advanced than merely polishing silver because it also entailed the higher brain functions of knowing what was trash, what could be fed to the (lesser) magical beasts in the forbidden forest, and what could be composted into fertilizer for Professor Sprout's greenhouse.

Three possibilities!

Her mind reeled while she worked, weighing the merit of each item on the plate. Plants typically made the best fertilizer - very little went into the trash. What really mattered was how to break down the proteins left over in the meats for the magical beasts. It was this 'executive function' that separated her job from all the other elves.

In reality, Crimples only real concern was a small family of Golden Snidgets that she had found living in a nest built into the hollow of a dead tree. Snidgets were so rare that they were thought to be extinct in the wild. These odd birds were the fast (but fragile) precursors of the Golden Snitches pursued in games of Quidditch - but later abandoned in favor or the much more sturdy, enchanted snitch.

But Crimples had found the nest and taken a shine to them. Each day after the morning meal, she would take a piece of meat that had not been eaten by the students and pop it into her mouth as she walked to the forbidden forest. She would chew and chew, but never swallow until it was the consistency of applesauce. When she got to the Snidgets' tree, she climbed up to the hollow, smashed her face next to the hole and opened her mouth.

After doing this for several days, the snidgets would come out as soon as she arrived to the tree and pester her endlessly, trying to fly into her mouth to get the chewed meat.

As her eyes scanned the table of leavings, she spied a large chunk of beef that had been cut into the perfect size. It hardly had any nibbles bitten from it at all and was lying, speared by a fork, in a bubble of sauce. She bounced over the table and snatched it up with a squeak of joy. She popped the whole thing into her mouth and sucked away the sauce so she could re-examine it. "Perfect!" She nearly sang out loud. "Perfect! Perfect.! Perfect.!"

Then she popped it back into her mouth and started chewing.

As she did, she absently started scraping the remaining food into cans she had marked in large letters: "Trash", "Greenhouse", and "Slop"

"Nom, nom, nom," she said, chewing exaggeratedly with a big smile on her face.

She would have gone on endlessly chewing and announcing her chewing if she didn't suddenly feel her hand touch something extremely cold.

With a cry she leapt from the table and scurried backwards on the floor spraying out chewed meat as she shrieked, "Shades! Shades! Oh dear! We're infested!"

House elves came from all sides to look upon the shadowy fingers that still stood up through the table where Crimples had been working.

A pop sounded as Boss Ginger apparated onto the table above the fingers and was already lifting a cage made from shimmering light up through the table containing the now distraught shade. It hissed and shrank within the small cage, as it pulled itself away from the despicable light-bars insolently fuming in its capture. 


	4. Chapter 4: The Looking Glass

Chapter Four  
Malfoy's boys

That night, Theo climbed out of bed again and slipped on his magic boots. He pulled his wizarding cloak over his bedclothes and patted the pocket to feel the form of the time turner and then crept out into the Slytherin common room. The green light that usually illuminated the hall's windows from the lake was dark, but the green orb lights colored the room similarly, if, perhaps, not as dramatically.  
Theo froze when he heard Malfoy's voice from the sofa by the fire. "I swear, I'll get him for this!" Goyle harrumphed from where he was standing beside the mantle, his fingers working at picking something green from his teeth.

"Why don't we just snatch him right now?" asked Goyle. "He's in there asleep. We can do whatever we want."

"Not tonight. I don't think Crabbe's up for it after hanging from those chains all day. And he's the one who needs satisfaction. Him - and me." he trailed off for a moment. "So we wait until he's out of the infirmary. Then, we'll give that little gobber his medicine."

Theo concentrated on his breathing. He was only ten paces from the two of them and felt entirely exposed were either of them were to simply turn their head his way. He lowered himself to a crouch and half crawled toward the exit until he had a column between himself and the fireplace.

"Besides, I have bigger fish to fry right now." Malfoy stood up and absently patted around the pockets of his cloak.

"What? Um … fish?" said Goyle, stupidly.

"Let's just get some rest."

Malfoy looked around on the sofa for a moment and then walked out of the common room in the direction of his dormitory. Goyle followed aimlessly.

When they were both gone Theo slipped quickly out of the Slytherin dungeon and into the halls outside. At the stairway that he and Crabbe were accumulating a history he met Daphne.

"Were Goyle and Malfoy still in there?" she asked.

"Yeah. I think I made them pretty upset. They sounded like they were plotting to kill me as soon as Crabbe is out of the infirmary."

"Perhaps you shouldn't have put him there then." she said as they started to walk up the stairs together.

"To be fair, I thought they'd go looking for him right away. I didn't think they'd wait until after dinner."

"I think you're attributing a bit too much empathy to the young Master Malfoy," said Daphne.

When they reached the seventh floor, there was a sickly odor of ammonia that grew stronger as they approached their room. Across from where the door would show up, they saw that neither Barnabas the Barmy nor his dancing trolls were anywhere to be seen. The crow was there though, perched on a branch in the foreground.

"Is anyone here yet?"

"Girls" the crow squawked.

"Tell them to let us in." Theo pulled a cob of corn from his cloak pocket and tossed it into the tapestry.

The crow pecked at it and then glided into the background.

A moment later, it was back to pecking the corn cob and a door appeared on the wall behind them.

#  
Luna and Miyuki were inside playing pool.

"I love that you brought this in, Theo, it was really getting too stuffy in here with nothing but the workbench." said Luna.

"I didn't bring it here to play games on."

"It doesn't matter why you brought it here. What matters is that it's here. And that it's fun."

"Well, pull yourselves away," he said as he brought out the time turner from his pocket. "Look what I have."

"Ooo!" said Luna. "Ms. Granger's time turner! Does it work?"

"You mean you know about this?" Theo was taken aback for a moment. Then he remembered to whom he was speaking. Luna knew all sorts of strange trivia, and she was uncannily observant.

"Of course I do. That's how Ms. Granger took so many classes last term."

Daphne was floored. She had never seen the pendant before and she certainly didn't know who had it earlier or to what use they put it. "You amaze me, Luna."

"But how else could she have done it? It is beautiful though. I've never actually seen it. Can I hold it?"

Theo gave the pendant over to Luna and watched as her eyes traced over it. She turned it in her hand and examined the moving parts.

"I tried using it the last time I brought it here, but I hadn't realized that I needed to put it around my neck. Then I thought better of messing with it until I understood it better."

Luna held it up to the light and read the inscription written around the gold outer ring. "I mark the hours, every one, Nor have I yet outrun the Sun. My use and value, unto you, Are gauged by what you have to do." She stopped and smiled to the others. "Do you mind if I use this really quickly? I almost forgot my scroll for potions the other day and I know I would have gone to class without it if I hadn't tripped over my shoes. I really need to run in and put them in my way!"

Theo looked at Daphne and Miyuki incredulously as Luna tossed the chain over her head.

"I won't be a second." She said. And then - immediately, "I'm back!"

The only difference was that she had a bit of perspiration on her brow that Theo didn't notice before.

"I don't know why I ran," she said as she wiped her forehead with her sleeve. "It's not like I didn't have time."

And that was it. Luna was their expert. She explained what she knew - which was quite a lot.

She explained that Saul Croaker was the real living expert on the matter, and he had done extensive work with time turners in the Ministry of Magic. He was also the one who diagnosed Hawking's Paradoxical Paralysis and set the limit on time travel at five hours.

"How do you know so much?" asked Miyuki.

"I told you. I saw Ms. Granger using it last year." She pointed to the book on Theo's workbench. "I read Nygaard's book over Christmas break. He's not a very good writer, but the material was fascinating."

That night they toyed with the turner a bit and then agreed to come back tomorrow night and immediately turn back two hours before going into the Room so that they could have more time to work without losing any in the 'real' world.

#  
Time traveling might teach them more by practicing some hands-on laboratory work into the nature of magic, but there were classes where they would be missed if they didn't attend.

First thing in the morning they all four had Professor Binns's 'History of Magic' together.

They were convinced that it was a joke that someone (Dumbledore) had scheduled Binns's classes only first thing in the morning and last thing at night - excepting Professor Sinistra's Astronomy class, of course, which was much later than any other course in order to ensure good viewing of the sky. It was just the sort of thing that he would find funny, challenging students to struggle against their need for sleep while the old codger droned away aimlessly.

Theo was concentrating on keeping his head perfectly upright without using any effort other than simple balance. He imagined that this would allow him to stay seated upright and not be caught dozing even if he fell completely asleep. In any other class, it would have been a horrible mistake, but Binns was so slow and tedious that even he sometimes dozed off while in the midst of a long pause in the lecture. He was already so boring in life that he had died without even noticing. Now, he was dead, and sometimes asleep, and still chattering on no differently than before. It was certainly worth the price of admission.

Binns wasn't asleep right now, but he wasn't quite conscious either. They had all learned to keep quiet, not to move too rapidly, and not move (far) from their seats. If they did so, Binns would ramble on as always.

Theo was startled, however, when Miyuki's hand slapped down on his own. He gave a surprised exclamation that startled Binns from his mumbling for a moment before picking up again (presumably) where he left off.

"What did you do that for?" Theo asked.

Miyuki put her finger to her lips and pointed at Binns. Binns almost took notice, but his monotonous murmurings fell back into their usual cadence soon.

"...As I was saying." Binns dropped into his lecture again, "Albert Einstein taught us the connection between Space and Time - they are one thing, Spacetime, and each affects the other in every moment. Grigori Smirnoff saw that they had another dimension as well, that of Magic. Amazingly, it was the muggle scientist who provided the breakthrough that Smirnoff needed to develop his own work."

"He was said to have created an enchanted mirror that he could step through that took him to a house of thousands of other mirrors from which he could find another that suited him and pass into that one only to come out in a third location somewhere else."

Theo was awake now and saw that Luna and Miyuki were also rapt. He nudged Daphne out of her daydreams and quietly pointed to Binns. It was as if the four of them were the only conscious ones in the room. Binns went right on lecturing while a dozen other students floated in and out of sleep or daydreams, and others even worked on something else entirely.

"Smirnoff discovered a great many things about time travel. He performed experiments no one else had dared before and detailed them all in his tome, The Looking Glass." Oddly, Binns chuckled once. "We have it here, in the library. Should be in the restricted section ... but that fool librarian knows nothing." He chucked again.

Then, before any of his less wakeful students noticed anything, he slipped back into his lecture. "I met Grigori once, many years ago at a conference about time magic. He told me things that made no sense then, and hardly make any more now. No one has seen of heard from him in years now. Probably lost in his mirrors somewhere…"

As his voice trailed off, Binns glanced at the clock and walked (floated) back to his desk. He dropped into his seat and said nothing more.

"Class Dismissed," Said Luna.

Theo hadn't the slightest idea if she was amused by this or saw it as some sort of duty. No one else seemed surprised at all and simply picked up their books and walked sleepily out the door.

"I'm going right now," said Miyuki.

"He's right though, you know," said Luna. "I've already looked. Just like Binns said, there's nothing there. If it is somewhere in the library, it's a needle in a haystack."

"Do you expect me to just give up? That's not like you, Luna. I want that book."

"No, I just mean that you're going to need help."

The two Ravenclaws decided to skip their Herbology class in favor of hunting through the library. They planned on telling Professor Sprout that they had been poisoned by Canis Berries they found growing by the lake (they really were poisonous, and did, in fact, grow there) and that they had then cured themselves with an extract of Grumbleroot (which was, also, the correct antidote). It was just the sort of story that Sprout loved to hear - students recognizing the ill and medicinal effects of local plants and putting that knowledge to work in the real world.

Theo and Daphne, however, had Potions with Snape. And Snape, being Snape, would accept no excuse they concocted. There was very little that he did not see through. And, to be perfectly honest, Theo enjoyed Snape's class immensely. He was a model student - and not in the Hermione kind of what answering every question out loud, but the kind who did the work, did it well, and completely comprehended the lessons - quietly.

They agreed to meet again that night in their workroom and share whatever they had learnt through the day.

So, the girls slipped away into less used corridors between classes and waited for their chance to sneak into the library.


End file.
